Contemporary PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Series Being Developed for ABC by DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Creator Marc Cherry

The classic romance/horror story The Phantom of the Opera might be finding its way to television thanks to Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry. According to Variety, ABC is developing a “drama with musical elements” and would be set in the modern-day music business. However, the series is not an adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s famous musical, but rather the musical’s source material, the original 1909 novel by Gaston Leroux. For those who don’t know, it’s about a musician who is scarred by acid, goes into hiding beneath an opera house, and then tries to lure a beautiful singer to his lair.

This modern-day update “is billed as revolving around the cutthroat world of the music biz and will incorporate musical moments into story lines in the same vein as the ABC drama Nashville.” It’s an intriguing take on the material, and Cherry showed with Desperate Housewives he has the skill to create a delectable soap opera.

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